


Overzealous Follicles

by JackyM



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos' Hair (Welcome to Night Vale), Cecil is a Good Husband, Gift Fic, M/M, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, Weird Things Happen To Carlos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-14 23:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16050974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackyM/pseuds/JackyM
Summary: Things get really hairy after Carlos does a lot of research and experiments on spiderwolf fur growth pattenrs.





	Overzealous Follicles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NikiPaprika](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NikiPaprika/gifts).



> I wrote this fic for Niki as a gift and also as thanks for a thing she drew for me!!! And this fic was REALLY CUTE AND I REALLY LOVED WRITING IT!!!! She asked for a fic about Carlos getting really long and soft and poofy hair and Cecil being very excited about that and AHHHHHH it was so cute writing this!! -w-/
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this!! It is sweet and good and silly!!!

The sound of the door opening, and then closing, made Cecil’s heart flutter. It was  _ possible _ that it was someone who wasn’t Carlos; government agents snuck into people’s homes all the time, and some were far less subtle than others. Really,  _ nothing _ was completely certain, only highly probable, based on facts and logic. But the way the door was quietly shut and the sound of Carlos gently humming to the doorframe to signal that he was home suggested that, in all likelihood, it was Carlos who was home, so saying hello to him wasn’t completely out of the question.

“Hey there, bunny,” called Cecil from the kitchen, pouring cumin into a slow cooker, “did you have a good day at work? I didn’t hear from you all day! I thought you were probably really busy, and focused on whatever it was you were doing.”

“It was...um, well, it was fine, except for an accident that happened,” said Carlos, taking his shoes off, “but, um...can you close your eyes, for a few seconds? I promise that nothing horrible happened. Actually, I think a lot of people might unscientifically call what happened a blessing in disguise.”

“Hmm,” said Cecil, with some trepidation as he covered his eyes with one hand, “are you sure? I mean, I would hate it if something happened that made it so that you were in a lot of pain, or turned into something really horrifying. Not that I don’t think you would be a handsome monster, just that some of them are so horrifying they can accidentally turn people’s bones to dust instantly. Station Management did that when they were younger like, all the time. They said they went through about seven rounds of employees a month.”

“Oh, no, no, nothing like that,” said Carlos, gently, “I am still very much the person that you woke up next to this morning. Everything about me is the same.”

Cecil felt Carlos wrap his arms around his waist, and let his breath come out, slowly. Resisting the urge to be nosy and look at Carlos, he adjusted his hand so that it was over his eyes more fully. 

“Okay. Well, that makes me less nervous. A lot less nervous. But if it’s not anything like that, then why are you having me close my eyes? If it’s not something too scary to behold, is it something too beautiful to behold?”

“Actually...actually, it kind of is. Do you remember what I said we were doing research on, Cecil?”

“Uh...sort of? Something about spiderwolf fur grows, right? You said that you have never seen anything more scientific, at least in terms of fur growth.”

“Yes, that’s it. Nobody has ever seen spiderwolves shed, although they definitely do it every year because their fur is found clinging to buildings and slowly burning holes into it since the acid in their fur starts to leak out after a few days. We were doing a lot of tests with spiderwolf fur today. Y’know, the kind of tests where you put something under a microscope and look into it, and go, ‘hmm, wow, that’s a lot of science right there’ while nodding at whatever vaguely blurry shape you see under the microscope. And then writing down ‘I saw a thing under the microscope, it was science!’ in a lab notebook and making a graph that shows that you definitely saw a thing. We did that with a large amount of samples we’ve collected from buildings and live spiderwolves, and we actually found out something about the acids that naturally occur in spiderwolf fur, after a lot of peering into microscopes and saying hmm! Do you know what we found out?”

“No, no, I don’t know. What did you find out, Carlos?”

“We found out that the acids in their fur is exactly what causes them to not physically look like they’re shedding. Their fur grows back so quickly that you just don’t see them in the process of shedding! And combined with the sebum that is naturally secreted by skin, the acid is rendered weak enough so it causes no harm to the spiderwolf, but still is able to increase the blood flow to the hair follicles, enough that the fur can rapidly grow back as soon as it’s gone!”

“Woah...that’s really interesting, Carlos. So their fur can just grow back as soon as it’s shed? Just like that?”

“Yes! Well, at least, that is our theory right now. We still need to test it out with actual spiderwolves to make sure that this is actually how their fur growth cycle works. Actually, no, no, that was a poor word choice. We still need to test it out with actual spiderwolves to make sure that this is how the fur growth cycle works in their species specifically. We, um...we know for a fact that the effects the acids have on hair growth works in a species other than spiderwolves. We learned this accidentally.”

“So...what happened?”

“Cecil,” said Carlos, pressing his forehead into Cecil’s back, “come on, think about it, kitty! Think about what I told you! I told you that spiderwolf fur can grow exponentially in a matter of seconds, and also that there was an accident in the lab today that involved me, and that this accident might be one that would under particular circumstances be positively viewed.”

“I’m not getting you.”

“You are  _ so _ silly, poot.”

“What? I’m not! You said that a lab accident today happened with the spiderwolf fur, and that the accident wasn’t like, a completely horrifying one that changed your appearance.”

“I never said it didn’t change my  _ appearance _ .”

The teasing tone Carlos used made Cecil take his hand off of his eyes, finally, and Cecil turned around to look at Carlos holding his waist and gazing up at him. 

And, in that moment, Cecil felt almost faint.

Cecil had always loved how Carlos’ hair looked. It was absolutely lushious, a combination of thick, wavy, soft curls that nestled into one another like a heavy cable-knit sweater. The premature touch of gray at his temples was a favorite spot of Cecil’s to plant kisses into, but that wasn’t to say the soft, rich black of the rest of Carlos’ hair wasn’t something Cecil loved, and loved deeply. Cecil loved feeling the body of Carlos’ rich hair in his hands, when Carlos was okay with being touched. His hair was softer than anything he’d ever felt in his life, and loved seeing how it caressed his hand from all sides, so warm and supple. Cecil had thought, a few times, about what Carlos’ hair might look like if it was even longer and thicker. Far be it from him to ask Carlos to grow it out, or anything like that. Not to mention, growing one’s hair out got harder the older a person got. Cecil had always set the idea aside as one completely impossible, and it surprised even him, in that moment, that he would ever think something, in Night Vale, of all places, was completely impossible.

Cecil spent several minutes drinking in the sight that he had for a long time considered nothing more than a shadow of a possibility. 

Carlos’ hair was so beautifully full and long that it reached past his waist. 

Cecil was so glad that Carlos’ hair was so lavishly substantial. Had Carlos had thin hair, it would not be anywhere near as pronounced as Carlos’ locks were presently. Not only did his beautiful hair stretch far downwards, but it pushed outwards as well, the prolific dilation of his beautiful hair making Cecil’s heart pound in his chest. Cecil knew how obviously flustered he looked, based on Carlos’ softly amused countenance, but he didn’t care. His mind was absolutely wracked with how beautiful Carlos was in that moment, and every moment was making Cecil more and more enamored with what he was seeing. 

“I mean, I thought you’d be happy with this,” said Carlos, with a chuckle, “but, oh my gosh. Wow. You’re  _ really _ happy with this, I think.”

“I…” Cecil fumbled for words, “I, uh, wow, I...usually I am good with words, and good with describing things in a dulcet way that paints in my listeners’ minds an articulate picture, but...but right now, Carlos,  _ oh _ ...I cannot think of any words that would do your elegant locks any kind of justice. I...so...so...so what  _ happened _ , Carlos?”

“The acids in spiderwolf are...much harder to wash out than I thought they would be. It is incredibly important for scientists to practice proper lab safety, Cecil, which I always am doing, because I am a scientist. I thought, though, that I could work with glass microscope slides that had spiderwolf fur on them with my bare hands. That, um...well, it was not a good idea. I should have worn gloves, even when handling the slides. It was an extra level of scientific precaution I should have taken. Apparently these acids are incredibly resilient and still works even after the hair has been removed, and if it gets into the hair follicles of another mammal, well...this happens.”

“So…” said Cecil, beginning to understand, “the spiderwolf fur acids got in your hair, and because they make spiderwolf fur grow back rapidly, they did the same thing to your hair?”

“Yeah,” said Carlos with a smile, “only, hair tends to grow independently, and will keep growing and growing. So, on a mammal that doesn’t shed, it, uh...has this effect.”

“Well, I’m not one to applaud a lack of lab safety skills, Carlos, but... _ wow _ . You look...you look  _ so handsome _ with your hair this long and full. I mean, not that you weren’t totally handsome earlier. I’m just saying that you also look very handsome with your hair this length. Some people do not look good with their hair this extensive and luscious, but you are  _ certainly _ not one of them.”

“You’re so cute,” said Carlos, squeezing Cecil in his arms.

“So are you. And just...so handsome.”

Carlos chuckled.

“I knew this already, but I mean this perhaps more of an emphasis now. You  _ really _ love my hair, don’t you?”

“I love it so much, Carlos. Seeing you with this much hair is absolutely blowing my mind. I feel like I might faint at any moment. You are the handsomest man I have ever met.”

“Cecil,” replied Carlos, taking his hands from Cecil’s waist and holding his face in his hands with a clement, soft grasp, “I think that you are forgetting another incredibly handsome man that exists in the world. A really, really handsome man with a wonderful voice.”

Cecil gently cupped Carlos’ face in his hands, reciprocating Carlos’ earlier action. He looked at how Carlos’ beautiful hair framed his face, and how it now cascaded over his body. It was as though it had the fluidity of a liquid, spilling over Carlos so in such large portions that it almost looked like clothing. Cecil let out a shaky breath and leaned forward, kissing Carlos on the lips, delicately, but lovingly. Carlos kissed him back, with the same amount of gentleness, the cloak of hair around him tickling Cecil’s nose. 

“I do need your help with something, though,” said Carlos when they pulled apart, placing his hands on Cecil’s chest. Cecil looked down at him quizzically, turning his head to one side. 

“Hmmm?”

“Well, because there’s still acids from spiderwolf fur in my hair, somewhere, I think I should try and wash it out. Scientifically speaking, it is incredibly important to decontaminate things that come in contact with science. Scientists, as well as lab equipment, fall under this category. That is why autoclaves and showers and other forms of scientific decontamination units exist. But there’s...well, there’s a lot of hair that I need to wash here, so I was wondering if you could--mmph!” 

Carlos felt another kiss on his lips, this time a little stronger, with a little more zest, holding Carlos by the hips as he kissed him. Carlos giggled in the kiss, stroking Cecil’s chest as he felt Cecil’s ministration tingle on his lips. When Cecil stopped kissing him, he rested his head against Carlos’.

“Hmm,” mumbled Carlos, moving his fingers in a sinusoidal pattern on Cecil’s chest, “I wonder if that was a yes or not! I wonder if science could answer that. I wonder! I sincerely wonder if science could answer the question that I am asking! That was a rhetorical question. Of course it can. The answer to whether or not science can answer a question is generally yes when it comes to thinks based on facts and logic. Like how much you love my hair being this length.”

“If I said no,” replied Cecil, poking Carlos in the belly, “I would be missing the chance of a  _ lifetime _ .”

* * *

 

Carlos’ hair at this length and fullness took much more time getting itself wet. Carlos held on to the soap bar in the shower, not used to the weight of his hair at this length, and even less used to the weight of his hair at this length being so wet, having trouble, even in the bathtub, at trying to balance himself. Cecil took the back end of his hair and wrung it out while Carlos wrung out the front sections of his now wet, rinsed out hair. Even when it was damp, his hair was still so wavy and curly and soft. 

Once Carlos’ hair was thoroughly rinsed out, Carlos took one of Cecil’s hands, and guided it towards his hair. Cecil, gave a little “oh my” when he felt Carlos’ heavy hair in his hands. He slid his hands forwards, watching Carlos’ hair cling to them for the entirety of the motion, stretching out from his knees from the side of the bathtub so that he could feel all of it in his hands. 

“There’s...oh, Carlos, there’s just  _ so much _ , and it’s so beautiful.”

“You have been dying to touch it since you saw it, haven’t you?”

“Dying  _ hardly _ describes it,” murmured Cecil, clutching the very end of Carlos’ ravishing hair in his hands, “I just can’t believe I get to feel this. Carlos...I can’t put into words just how taken away I am right now by how beautiful your hair is. The way the curls and waves and tangles fit together in a beautiful cloudlike shape, it’s just...so perfectly imperfect.”

“Stop,” mumbled Carlos, blushing, and covering his face, “you’re too much.”

“Well, your hair is too much, and I mean that in the most awestruck way possible. This is maybe too much beauty for me to handle.”

“Here,” said Carlos, handing Cecil a bottle of shampoo, the kind mixed with conditioner and smells like orchids, “just to make sure we get everything out.”

“You can’t mean that…” Cecil trailed off, looking at Carlos’ hair reverently for a few moments, and then returning his gaze to Carlos, “you can’t mean that you want me to wash your hair, do you?”

“Cecil, oh my god, Cecil, you adorable rumbly  _ puma concolor _ ,” said Carlos, laughing and putting a hand over his face, “you are being such a dork about this.”

“It’s just...it’s so beautiful.”

“I know that! And I know that you also think it is beautiful! It’s why I want you to wash it!”

“Well, if you  _ insist _ ,” said Cecil, teasingly, squeezing shampoo into one of his hands. 

He started at the top of Carlos’ head, taking care to very slowly massage the shampoo into Carlos’ scalp. With his hair being so much thicker, it took some doing getting the shampoo even distributed. Cecil took care to lather the several layers of Carlos’ heavy hair. He dug his fingers into Carlos’ scalp, but gently, with enough pressure that his touch was firm, but not overwhelming, and made Carlos feel pleasantly warm. The dreamily content look on Carlos’ face made Cecil smile. The fact that Carlos was just as happy with this as Cecil was so deeply appealing to Cecil that he leaned forward to kiss Carlos’ temple.

Squeezing more shampoo into his hand, Cecil took hold of the further sections of Carlos’ hair, coating them with shampoo and working his hands down the entire length of the scientist’s gorgeous locks. Cecil found that the almost-full shampoo bottle had dwindled to almost none left, since the thickness of Carlos’ hair had required so much shampoo. Even at the very ends of his hair, where it had grown more thin and wispy as it strayed away from Carlos’ scalp, Cecil needed to use enough shampoo to cover the body of Carlos’ hair. 

There was something so relaxing about the whole process. Cecil loved how soft Carlos’ hair was, even when it was wet. The feeling of Carlos’ hair getting soap rubbed into it until a sweet-smelling form accumulated between his fingers felt nice in Cecil’s hands. Though his fingers were definitely becoming wrinkled from the water, he didn’t care. If he could, he would spend hours lathering Carlos’ hair with shampoo and dragging his hands through Carlos’ hair, feeling it stretch so much further than usual, ending on a later note that Cecil would gently squeeze to rinse it out. 

Once Carlos’ hair and scalp had been thoroughly rubbed clean with soap, Cecil guided Carlos down into the bath water and let Carlos rinse his hair out. Cecil couldn’t help but gasp, seeing Carlos’ hair spread out in the bathtub like sunbeams. It radiates outwards, surrounding Carlos with a sea of dark black hair kissed with touches of gray. It almost looked like Carlos was in some kind of luxurious bath, one of the kinds of baths that used a wide array of oils, salts and spices. It sort of looked, Cecil thought to himself, like Carlos was taking a bath in a concoction of elegant, heady lavender with charcoal and yarrow. Which, Cecil then realized, would be a lovely thing to do for Carlos one of these days, to show how much he appreciated Carlos. 

The way Carlos’ hair looked in the water, exuberant in all senses of the word, made Cecil almost breathless. He had never met someone with hair as beautiful as Carlos’. Let alone, met someone with hair so beautifully long that when it was freely  moving in the water in undulating motions, it looked as though it was cloaking its owner in a soft, plush blanket.

Carlos stayed with his hair in the water for a few minutes, his eyes closed. Cecil kept his eyes on Carlos, and his hair, and the way his hair framed not only his face, but his whole body. In that moment, all he could focus on was what was playing out in front of him. The sight of Carlos relaxing in the orchid-scented bathwater, the sound of the bathtub making faint gurgling noises, the sound of some vague humming somewhere within their home, and the occasional coo of a mourning dove outside, peppered with the scream they sometimes make. 

Carlos stretched in the bathtub, and heaved himself up, clinging to the sides of the bathtub for support. Cecil immediately came to Carlos’ side, wringing out the incredible length of Carlos’ hair and looking almost incredulous as, despite how much wringing he did, it still had more water inside of it.

“This is amazing,” said Cecil, chuckling to himself, “there’s still water in your hair, after all of this wringing. I had no idea how fabulously palatial your hair would get at this length.”

“Neither did I, Ceece! I never really considered this to be a possibility, either, given my age. Hair growth usually is not this exponential once someone gets past forty.”

“Hey,” said Cecil, playfully pushing Carlos’ shoulder, “I still say you don’t look a day over thirty. Like, at the most, thirty five, but that’s still going a little high, handsome.”

“Ceece. My hair’s gray. I think I may be getting there.”

“Only in  _ some _ places. Before I knew you, I swore that touch of gray at your temples was like, incredibly, ridiculously premature.”

“Stop.”

“No way,” said Cecil, helping Carlos stand up and wrapping a towel around Carlos once he was on is feet. 

Carlos stepped out of the tub, dripping, holding his towel around his body with one hand and moving his other one into Cecil’s. He squeezed his husband’s hand and rested his head against the small of Cecil’s back, listening to and feeling the faint rumble of Cecil’s voice as he did the usual incantation for the tub to start draining. Carlos was particularly fond of Cecil performing this chant, because of its low, growl-like lyrics, and the way the words folded into each other in a low symphony that made Carlos flush, even though he’d heard Carlos perform this incantation countless times.

* * *

 

After a slow cooker-cooked dinner of cumin roasted pork, courtesy of Carlos’ handsome radio host husband, Cecil and Carlos retired to the couch. They usually did this after dinner, but it felt different tonight. Cecil liked to have a blanket over his lap when they laid down on the couch together with something playing on the television, volume turned down low. Instead of a blanket, Cecil just let Carlos lay his much-longer-than-usual hair over his lap. He’d taken up to gently running a brush through Carlos’ hair, focusing on the way his recently dried hair so smoothly molded with the shape of the brush. Cecil was amazed with how facile it was to brush through hair this long. He expected some snagging from knots, but he encountered almost none. It was like working with a paintbrush, the way Carlos’ hair so smoothly was being brushed. Cecil supposed that having his hair washed had something to do with it, since Carlos’ hair, being so naturally curly and wavy, had a way of getting tangled and knotted. But he did not expect Carlos’ hair to be so wonderfully soft and easy to work with. 

And oh,  _ great unmerciful Glow Cloud _ , it was so long. The way it was folded and draped over Cecil’s lap like a fancy robe made Cecil quiver. He swore he had never seen anything more beautiful in his life.

Setting his brush down, Cecil put one of his hands in Carlos’ hair, and gently started to rub his hand back and forth, feeling the satiny texture of it and feeling so taken aback by its softness and beauty that he hardly knew how to describe what he was seeing. Based on Carlos’ expression, he was likely enjoying it just as much as Cecil was. His eyes were closed and he had long pillowed his head on his stuffed dinosaur, squishing his cheek against the plush and looking heart-meltingly adorable. Carlos had his issues with being touched. Some places he didn’t like being touched at all, regardless of the kind of day he was having. He didn’t like hugs, or people touching his shoulders, or people trying to get his attention by tapping him anywhere on his body. 

And some places, more than others, he generally felt okay with people touching him. In those places, feeling physical contact didn’t make him feel uncomfortable and make him shy away from touch in protest. There was no guarantee of him being okay with touch there, but perhaps, there was really no guarantee in anything. Only a strong probability. Statistics do not answer the question with yes or no. They answer the question with “there’s a high chance, nearing 100 percent certainty, that it is yes or no, but I cannot answer that for certain”. And, for this reason, Carlos, based on science and facts and logic and statistics, was generally okay with someone touching his hair. Doubly so for Cecil. 

It felt nice, feeling Cecil’s fingers in his hair. The way Cecil gently glided his fingers through his hair was with so much care and caution, it made Carlos deeply content. Carlos barely felt Cecil’s fingers when they trailed a little further, gently rubbing between his thumb and forefinger the very tips of Carlos’ hair. It was amazing, Carlos thought to himself, how hair worked. Hair wasn’t alive, at least, not past the root. No cells and no need to be maintained the way other parts of the body did. And yet, hair had so much to do with a person’s appearance, and how others viewed them. If someone’s hair changed enough, they’d be almost unrecognizable. Or, Carlos thought with a smile, maybe they’d look incredibly different in a way that was anything but negative. He knew Cecil would absolutely love his hair being this much longer, given how Cecil, from the moment he had laid eyes on Carlos, been nothing but amazed by Carlos’ hair. Carlos smiled, opened his eyes, and did his best to look up at Cecil from his position. Carlos couldn’t really feel it, but he knew Cecil was still running his hands through the ends of his hair, feeling the body of it in his hands and playing with it. He was  _ so cute _ .

“You really love this, huh?”

Cecil looked at Carlos, still holding handfuls of hair in his gentle hands.

“Um,  _ yes _ . I do. I love this very much. I swear, I have never felt anything this soft and lush in my entire life, Carlos. It feels like I have an actual cloud in my hands right now. I mean it. It feels like an actual cloud is on my lap and I get to run my fingers through it.”

“Meteorologists claim that clouds are actually made of water, Ceece. I mean, who is to say, really, how much of what they say is scientific fact and not an aspect of their worship, but it is still an important fact to consider.”

“I mean, your hair was still super soft and beautiful when it was wet. I really don’t see the point you’re trying to make here.”

“The point I am trying to make is that meteorologists claim that clouds, if they were something we could actually understand, could actually weigh about 1.1 million pounds, because they are made up entirely of water drops and ice crystals.”

“Hmm. And yet, they float, and look fluffy.”

“Yeah. That is why nobody understands clouds. They make absolutely no sense. People have tried to understand clouds, but unfortunately, given the mysterious nature of their existence and their way of making people grovel to them in a haze of terror and reverie, trying to study them ends up being more of a religion than anything else.”

“Hey, it is still a mystery to me how your hair can be this gorgeous no matter what length it is or style it’s in. Your hair still has a lot in common with clouds. I just don’t worship it.”

“Ceeeeeeeeece,” mumbled Carlos, covering his face with his hands, “why are you always so sweet?”

“Because I love you,” said Cecil, leaning forward and kissing Carlos on the forehead. Carlos reached up and returned the favor. There was a slight shifting of their positions, and then a larger shifting of positions, so that Carlos was holding himself above Cecil and kissing his neck, his beautifully long hair folding over his body perfectly. Cecil reached for Carlos’ waist, making a few small, happy noises as he felt Carlos’ thick body of hair that far down his body. Carlos peppered Cecil’s neck in kisses, letting his lips linger on top of his vocal cords, because Cecil was happily humming as he gently held Carlos. The feeling of Cecil’s wonderful baritone rumbling in his throat made Carlos blush, and he planted several more kisses on top of Cecil’s neck. A few moments later, Carlos lifted his head up and made contact with Cecil’s lips, which Cecil reciprocated with reckless abandon. Carlos felt Cecil’s hands slide up his body so that they eventually were resting on the sides of his head, burying his fingers into the rich body of Carlos’ hair and feeling the soft give of it. They kissed like this for a few moments, with Cecil gently holding Carlos’ vast swaths of hair in his hands and Carlos holding himself over Cecil in such a position that his hair beautifully flowed over his body. 

Carlos pulled away from Cecil, out of breath, and lowered himself so that he was rested with his chin on Cecil’s chest. Cecil spread Carlos’ hair out so that it covered all of Carlos’ back, like a thick wool blanket. Cecil laid his hands over Carlos’ back, feeling all of the hair there and stroking it. 

“I understand if you don’t want your hair to say this long,” said Cecil after a few moments, “I mean, it definitely is a lot of upkeep.”

“I will think about it,” replied Carlos, looking at Cecil dreamily from where he was on Cecil’s chest. 

“Aww, bunny. Don’t feel like you should keep your hair like this because of me. I love your hair at this length, but that isn’t to say I don’t also love your hair as a beautifully sculpted quaff that rests on your head like an undisturbed forest.”

“I think it feels interesting having hair this long, actually. I have never had the chance to have it this long, because very long hair can be a lab safety concern, and very long and thick hair is difficult to pull back. But experiencing things that you have never experienced before, especially things that you considered were far from a distinct possibility, is a big part of being a scientist. This is a way of existing that is kind of new to me, and it is exciting, Cecil. Existing in ways slightly different than how you used to exist is one of the most exciting ways that you can exist.”

“Well, okay,” Cecil said, moving his hands from Carlos’ hair and holding his face in them, “just don’t do anything about your hair and your hair’s length because you think it’ll make me happy, okay?”

“Definitely,” said Carlos, covering Cecil’s hand with his own, “I love you, Cecil. I love you so much. My wonderfully handsome and smart and kind and helpful radio host.”

“And I love you, Carlos. My handsome and smart and kind and always surprising scientist.”

Carlos positioned himself so he could more comfortably lay down on Cecil, and Cecil sighed and stretched his legs out. He turned the volume up on the television, on some program about the horrors of deep space, but truth be told, their attention on the program was waning. Carlos rested his head against Cecil, his stuffed dinosaur in the crook of his arm, and Cecil laid stretched out with one hand on Carlos’ back, soft hair and all, both of them drowsy, happy, and so in love.


End file.
